Victoria, 100%The Blue Moon Project is on the 100% owned licence EL007839 . Falcon submitted an application for this permit when it came out of moratorium in December 2021. It is the exploration ground that surrounds the Bendigo mining permit (that remains in moratorium) which had historical production of 22 Moz of gold. Blue Moon is located 25km west from the Fosterville Gold Mine with the Swan Zone (2.3 Moz @ 49.6 g/t Au), owned by Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM).
The 174km2 exploration licence was granted to Falcon for its initial 5-year term in mid-2023 (see ASX announcement “Exploration Update and Key Bendigo Tenement Awarded” released on 1 June 2023), and Falcon completed an initial program of low-impact aircore drilling on some regional reconnaissance targets in the 2023/2024 drill season.
Location of Blue Moon
Blue Moon is the northerly down-plunge extension of the Garden Gully anticline (~5.2Moz @ 15g/t Au), developed by Falcon as a conceptual target from a 3D reconstruction of the Bendigo workings, historical reports and field mapping.
A significant amount of the mineralised reefs in the historical mines along the northern portion of the Garden Gully anticline came from smaller folds in the eastern limb, as well as associated faults, rather than exclusively from the main fold hinge saddle reef position. A schematic section of the mineralised reefs from the New Moon shaft, located approximately 520m south of Falcon’s EL007839 tenement boundary and one of the most productive reefs in the Garden Gully line, is shown below. This highlights the various types of mineralised reefs that were mined, which include saddle, neck, leg and trough reefs, as well as spur veins associated with faulting. It also shows that narrow-laminated veins can be traced back to more prospective structures, where they intersect faults or folds.
Schematic cross section showing interpreted quartz reef geometries (red) at New Moon shaft (approx. 520m south of Falcon’s Blue Moon tenement boundary) modified from New Moon Company Mine transverse section
The Parent hole BMDD001 was designed as a stratigraphic hole to gather geological and structural information from the eastern limb of the Garden Gully anticline. The hole successfully identified several mineralised structures with multiple high-grade zones, with previously reported results as follows::
The first wedge hole, BMDD001W1, was drilled closer to the hinge zone of the anticline but remained in the eastern limb. Visible gold was identified in a laminated quartz vein over a 1.2m downhole width, up-dip from a bedding parallel vein that returned anomalous gold (<1 g/t Au) in BMDD001. This wedge hole was approximately 6m west of the parent hole at this depth.
The significant intercepts from BMDD001W1 from the full assay results are:
Wedge hole BMDD001W2 confirmed the position of the Garden Gully anticline, which allowed accurate targeting of the third wedge hole, BMDD001W3, to drill down the hinge. The significant intercepts from BMDD001W2 and BMDD001W3 were:
BMDD001W2
BMDD001W3
BMDD001W4 was drilled through the entire Garden Gully eastern limb. The hole was successful in locating the Paddy’s Gully syncline, and has provided an improved understanding of the structure of the eastern limb. This hole intersected one mineralised vein grading 1m @ 3.9g/t Au from 540m.
Following the identification of numerous occurrences of visible gold over a 6.5m downhole width in BMDD001W6, samples were expedited, grading:
This high-grade vein is a bedding-parallel east dipping leg reef proximal to an interpreted small parasitic fold in the east limb of the Garden Gully anticline. The quartz vein has significant stylolitic development with abundant arsenopyrite and pyrite, with the observation that the visible gold seen so far at Blue Moon commonly occurs where stylolites are present. Quartz veins without stylolitic textures can often be lower in grade or unmineralised.
This is the largest quartz vein with visible gold identified in the program so far, and is also interpreted to be approximately 55m east of the Garden Gully anticline hinge.
Long section of significant intercepts from the parent hole and wedge holes
Visible gold in BMDD001W1 at 544.6m dept
Visible gold in BMDD001W1 from 544.9m depth
Visible gold from BMDD001W6 at 832.7m in NQ core (47.6mm diameter)
Cross section of BMDD001 and wedge holes
Schematic cross section of Blue Moon showing geological interpretation with target structures (red)
The Bendigo Goldfield is known to host multiple lines of reef. Falcon is initially targeting the Garden Gully line (~5.2Moz @ 15g/t Au), as it was the best performing reef and closest to its EL007839 tenement boundary. However, multiple lines of reef are interpreted to extend onto Falcon tenure and provides further exploration opportunities. Falcon has approximately 6km of northern strike to test across these lines of reef.
Bendigo Goldfield historic production